I know there are many factors that affect line tension, including skier weight. An 115lb skier will have less tension than a 220lb skier due to inertia, force to accelerate the skier to the same speed, etc. In general, I've tried to ski with a light line throughout, without too much load variation. The obvious phase on the course that generates most line tension for me is at the work zone.
I'm mostly interested in relative line tension from pre-turn to completion. So for sake of discussion, what is the line tension (guessing at lbs of line tension) at different phases on the course for a 5' 9" 150lb skier? For example, I'm guessing that the line tension at the peak of my work zone is 250lb.
pullout
glide for some skiers
turn into gate
thru the gate
pre-transition (edge change) to buoy
transition
turn initiation
turn apex
turn completion
'hookup'
behind the boat workzone
pre-transition, repeat...
I have a load meter attached to the line. I can only give a number that I was tracking. My weight is 175, height 5' 10''. My max load @ 35 off behind the boat was 480 lbs.
A load meter that is totally cool, where did you get it and how much did it cost? maybe that could be a new event max load pull.
The West Coast Advanced Slalom dvd has an entire section devoted to studying rope loads throughout a run for both Terry Winter and Marcus Brown.
TW
Here is the link to the system I use. You will also need a load cell about 1000lbs. Make this the lenght 1'6'' and remove the 39 1/2 loop.
http://www.virtualmc.com/products_vc210.htm#